Lighting Their Fires:
Rafe Esquiths Secret to Raising Extraordinary Kids

Rafe Esquith teaches in a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by poverty and violence. Yet his students consistently score in the top 5 to 10 percent of the country in standardized tests and then go on to attend our most prestigious colleges and universities. How does he do it? Included: The secret" to raising extraordinary kids.

About Rafe Esquith Rafe Esquith has been teaching at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles, California, since 1981. He is the only teacher to have been awarded the president's National Medal of the Arts. His many other honors and awards include the American Teacher Award, Parents magazine's As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey's Use Your Life Award, and People magazine's Heroes Among Us Award. Esquith is the author of There Are No Shortcuts, Teach Like Your Hair Is on Fire, and Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara Tong.

Rafe Esquith teaches at Hobart Elementary School, in a Los Angeles, California, neighborhood plagued by poverty and violence. Ninety percent of Hobarts students qualify for free or reduced lunches. Nearly 80 percent of its students are Hispanic immigrants; 18 percent are Asian immigrants; 2 percent are black. Few of Hobarts more than 1600 students speak English as a first language.
And yet many of Rafe Esquith's fifth-grade students voluntarily start class at 6:30 each morning and stay until as late as 6:00 in the evening. They work through recess, and during vacations and holidays. They consistently score in the top 5 to 10 percent of the country in standardized tests; many go on to attend our most prestigious colleges and universities. How do they do it? How does Esquith inspire them to do it?
  Esquith turns his attention to parents, explaining how they can raise children who are not just good students, but thoughtful and honorable people as well.
Esquith recently talked with Education World about Lighting Their Fires and about how parents and teachers can work together to raise extraordinary children in this mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world."
Education World: I was surprised when I read your latest book Lighting Their Fires to find that it was written for parents, rather than teachers. Why did you decide to write a book for parents?
Rafe Esquith: I was shocked when Teach Like Your Hairs on Fire became an international bestseller. I thought I was writing a little cookbook for teachers, and instead I received thousands of letters from all over the world. Surprisingly, many of them were from parents.